Michael Moore, Shaun King Say They'll ‘Settle for Biden'
Michael Moore and Shaun King revealed that they are willing to “settle” and vote for former vice president Joe Biden in the November election, even though they believe parts of his policy platform are “worse than virtually every major Democrat’s plan.”
The two far-left activists spoke in a recent episode of the Rumble with Michael Moore podcast.
“In all of the states where Biden campaigned for months, he got his ass handed to him,” King said. “In the places where he spent a ton of time campaigning, legitimately trying to earn people’s votes, from Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada — he got crushed.”
“He didn’t come in second, or third, or fourth in some places,” Moore chimed in.
“And there was zero enthusiasm,” King added. “People were basically making a clear statement that we had a chance to really, really inspect his candidacy, his policies, and we prefer these other three or four people over him, and in states like Nevada and others, the gap was enormous.”
“I ask people, like, ‘Did you ever like Joe Biden before he was Obama’s vice president?’ And people, almost universally, would say no,” King said. He theorized that Biden’s success in the Democrat primary has been thanks to “the power of being Obama’s vice president for eight years.”
“Biden’s platform for justice reform — the revised platform — it’s worse today than virtually every major Democrat’s plan when they were running,” he added.
King went on to say that a member of Congress has privately begged him to stop speaking negatively about Biden.
“I had a congressperson, who was a surrogate for Joe Biden, call me and say, ‘Listen, please, I’m asking you to stop criticizing Joe Biden,'” he said. “Now — I’ve never said this publicly — I have decided to limit my criticisms of Joe Biden to like once or twice a week.”
“So, I have something to say every day, and several times a day, and I’m routinely frustrated with him,” King admitted, adding that he “was so pissed” when this particular congressperson asked him not to criticize Biden.
“Listen, I will vote for the man, but I’m not going to be silent, I’m not going to lie and say that the plan was good, it wasn’t,” he continued. “I’ll vote, but I’m not gonna lie for him. I’m not gonna misrepresent his policies and say they kick ass when they don’t.”
King then brought up Democrats suggesting that Biden should avoid debating President Donald Trump. “At first I was like, ‘Are they serious?’ and I went and I watched the Sunday clips, and they were dead serious,” he said. “Imagine if Trump said, ‘I’m not doing the debates.’ Man, the uproar would be crazy, and so I hate, like, we’re in this period where it seems like Democrats, their goal is just to, like, keep Joe Biden as quiet as possible until he wins.”
Moore jumped in to clarify that this criticism of Biden does not mean refusing to vote or committing to vote third-party. “I think we all know we’ve gotta get rid of Trump,” he said, adding that he has heard of an Instagram group called “Settle for Biden.”
“They post these things like, ‘Yeah, okay, alright, I’ll settle for Biden,’ and they’re gonna vote,” Moore explained.
King replied: “Joe Biden was generally, like, the least preferred major candidate among young people, and virtually every other major candidate had higher enthusiasm ratings than Biden.”
“Young people have had to learn a lesson,” he continued. “Sometimes you get an opportunity to campaign and vote for somebody you’re crazy about, and when you get that opportunity, you should cherish it, you should relish it, you should go for it. Other times, though, you don’t get that. And when you don’t get that — you have to be more pragmatic than you want to be. You don’t get to necessarily be a dreamer, you have to really say, ‘Yeah, I am settling for this candidate.'”
With the Democratic National Convention (DNC) looming — scheduled to be held from August 17 to 20 at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin — Biden is expected to announce his pick for vice president any day.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler at @alana, and on Instagram.